education is a journey, not a race

So wrote Rudolf Steiner, whose work is the inspiration for Steiner education in Norwich.

A balance of practical, emotional and intellectual learning is the aim, appropriate for the individual child at each stage of their journey.

As Steiner put it: education for the head, heart and hands.

philosophy and values

We believe that learning should and can be a joyful experience for children, imbued with a sense of wonder at the world and of deep respect and appreciation for others and themselves. Education should and can take place in a beautiful, safe and caring environment. Developing creativity, social confidence and physical skills should and can form a beneficial partnership with intellectual learning.

The Steiner curriculum is based upon a clear view of child development and the most appropriate way to teach children at each of its stages. A rush to excessively formalised and intellectual study is avoided so that there is time to learn in a fuller, more rounded way. Rather than pressure to reach externally set standards at too young an age, children are challenged to acheive their own unique potential as each new day, week and term unfolds.

Waldorf education

This form of education is also known as 'Waldorf' or 'Steiner Waldorf' education because the first school started by Steiner was for children of workers at the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany.

Following the success of the early schools, an educational movement developed which now includes more than 800 Steiner-Waldorf schools spread across every continent on the globe. The inherent flexibility of the approach, with its emphasis on the timing and style of learning over the details of content, has proved advantageous for its adaptation and refinement in different places and changing eras. In recent years, it has become the fastest growing educational movement worldwide. Perhaps the firm inner foundation that Steiner-Waldorf education provides for its students is seen as more and more valuable in a rapidly changing world?

The adults who teach children in the Steiner system tend to stay with the same pupils for a relatively long period; three years for kindergarten teachers and up to seven years for school class teachers. Teachers gain an in-depth knowledge of each child and their development. The Steiner system encourages them to use this knowledge, placing the child at the centre of their teaching, rather than the latest government initiative or the supposed imperatives of the economy.

safeguarding childhood

Many parents these days have worries about possible negative effects on their children of excessive television watching, advertising, junk food and the replacement of real outdoors play by hours spent on computer games. Steiner education shares these concerns and works with parents to provide children with some protection from the more undesirable features of modern life. For example, in a Waldorf school most of the parents either have no television at all or else take serious responsibility for controling the viewing of their children. This makes an enormous difference in overcoming the problem of peer-pressure which can otherwise cause tremendous difficulties to parents who have to try and act alone. Similarly parents are helped by the fact that 'all the other children' are not playing violent playstation games, eating chips every lunchtime or wearing brand-label trainers.

Steiner Waldorf education in Britain

Norwich Steiner School is recognised by the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship. All the UK schools operate in the fee-charging, independent sector. However, following a very positive Woods report on Steiner education commissioned by the government's Department for Education and Skills in 2005, there are signs of change in this situation. In September 2008, the Steiner Academy Hereford became the first state funded Steiner School in the UK. In June 2006 the Norwich Steiner School and Kindergarten was inspected by Ofsted and the report can be downloaded here in pdf form. The Kindergarten and Afternoon care were inspected in 2007 and the Ofsted report can be downloaded here, also in pdf form.